Design Research: 10 websites reviewed

1. Karim Rashid's website is awesome. His designs are incredibly colorful and the site does a fantastic job of capturing his personality. The site opens to a playful picture of him; beneath that are easy to see interactive icons to direct you around the site. What I particularly like is that the home page (and most of the site) takes up about only 2/3 of the page vertically; it is visually uncluttered and very easy to navigate. Once you select an icon, the next page brings up small and intriguing thumbnails of Karim's products. Each thumbnail can be clicked to access a line of products or more photos. Because you can't see all of what's in these tiny pics, curiosity gets the best of you and you'll being clicking away. I do love this designer's work, and am very pleased that this site is befitting such a cool guy.
2. Studio Tord Boontje is a beautifully designed website for Dutch designer Tord Boontje. His products and installations involve magnificent laser-cut designs on materials such as steel, Corian, and glass. These delicately patterned pieces are reflected in the design of his website. What I find most attractive about the site is an ethereal image of cut paper flowers that remains in the upper left corner throughout your navigation. The flowers move as though caught in a breeze, and the image is semi-transparent, like it is behind vellum. The entire site is pleasing to the eye, and very easy to use. The categories to choose from are simple and few, and there are not a million things branching off of each category to cause confusion. Simplicity works in favor of this site for sure.
3. Can you say "bor-ing"? You will if you visit the Design Group of Lynchburg, Inc.'s website. I can barely stifle the yawns even as I type this after viewing their site. The company offers graphic design services (including web design!) and I'm wondering if they are serious about this claim. The site has a red background with a cheesy swirly type thing at the bottom of the page, and that's about as far as their creativity goes. The top of the page has a plain white box with four categories: home, services, works, and contact us. EXCITING!!! And what's worse is that these titles are in a handwritten font with the same thing written under it in a traditional Times type font. Why? I don't get it. Having four items in the index is simple, which I like, but when you click on any of these you don't get any further than one more page. For example, click on "services". All you get is a very slight change in a white text paragraph that lists what they do: billboards, brochures, logos, web design, etc. That's it. Nothing else about the red background page changes. Click on "works" and a few thumbnail images appear, but all that leads to is a pop-up window of poorly chosen photographs of their completed projects. In a nutshell, I would not hire this firm to make invitations for my kids' parties much less something substantial like a billboard or publication if it's going to put me to sleep like their website. (I have never been this mean in my life!!)
4. I stumbled across the Melia Design Group when I did a Google search under "design group". I had to check it out since my classmate Melia sits next to me and I thought she would like to hear about it. I was pleasantly surprised at what the group does and also at how well their website is designed. It appears that they have spent a lot of time creating an appealing and impressive professional site. Offering services such as web design and print & advertising, this company has quite a few famous clients including National Geographic, Biltmore Estate, The Smithsonian Institution and PINK Magazine. There is no doubt they have acquired these clients due to their amazing work as seen in their portfolio. The site itself conveys their style in clean lines, trendy colors, and an honest approach to marketing. A sense that MDG genuinely cares about what they do and also about their clients is evident in the text of the main design page: "Does good design matter? The real question is 'Does good design matter to your customers?'" They have successfully put together a site that shows off this ideology. While there is a lot of information to gather from the site, it is arranged in a way that is well organized and not overwhelming. I also like that there are moving features, like photographs that reveal themselves in a three-part sequence as you navigate through their portfolio. Stagnant is boring, and you won't find that here. The only thing I dislike is that you have to scroll down just a bit to click on the clients' names when viewing the portfolio page; this is a minor issue but it could have easily been avoided to be a little more user friendly. A convenient feature is direct links to their client's sites so you can see their designs at work.
5. Hooray for "MoCo Loco"! The Modern & Contemporary Design Blog (it's formal title) is a treasure trove of what's happening in the design world now. What a great place to stay abreast of what shows/installations are upcoming as well as seeing new (and ultra-cool) products that you may love but had no idea existed. I'd like to keep this site bookmarked for a couple of reasons: 1--to drool over the products & art shown; 2--as future project inspiration. Since the site is formatted as a blog, it is quite easy to look through and is well organized through a search feature as well as archives (although I'd rather just stumble around and gawk at all the cool stuff!). Be sure to check it out!
6. A2 is an industrial design group that makes products we've all seen and probably never gave much thought into how it was made. When I came across their site, I was intrigued by these little cupcake holders (they have feet!) that I've seen at the craft store. Upon further investigation, I discovered that A2 is the design behind many familiar products such as Wilton bake ware, Cuisinart kitchenware, and Ekco housewares. (Ok, they're familiar to me because I've worked in retail before.) The site is a simple grid/block pattern that you simply click exactly where you want to go. It's well organized and has a simple color scheme of grays on white. The companies that A2 creates designs for are listed on the left and also have links to their own respective websites. If you're at all interested in industrial/product design, definitely have a look. It's pretty neat to see that everyday objects have a lot of thought and process behind their design.
7. Studio Daniel Libeskind's site has a great concept for navigation that reflects the work of the architect and his studio quite well. The color scheme is black and grayscale, a simplicity I enjoy, and the categories resemble file folders in a sense that you have headers above horizontal lines simulating the pulling up of a folder. In contrast to the grayscale, bold and energetic red text is dotted throughout the articles in the folders you've clicked. Libeskind's work is beautiful, clean and contemporary, and his site is befitting this image. (My favorite part is the white-on-black sketching on the home page. Very powerful.)
8. Why didn't I find these guys first? I think I'm in love... with Pentagram Design. THEY DO EVERYTHING! And even better, they do it well. Out of all of the sites I've reviewed, I spent the most time here and loved every second of it. There are still many things I haven't explored, but I certainly intend to as they are my new fave. Pentagram's work includes: architecture, books, editorial, exhibitions, identities (branding), interactive (media) design, marks (logos), packaging, print, products, and signage. The site is crisp, clean and visually uncluttered. You could spend hours viewing their portfolio, which is chock full of photos. There isn't anything about this site that I don't like, except that my name isn't on it's current roster of employees. (Let me commence drooling...)
9. A great minimalist yet colorful site I've discovered is for Paris based design group ora-ito. Ora-ito is a product and packaging design company and is behind many famous brands and products we are all familiar with, such as Adidas, Virgin, Heineken, Gucci, Levi's, LG, Luis Vuitton, and many more. What is most striking about their site is the MUSIC!!!! Finally, a design site that has music--and it's cool, not cheesy. The home page has a white background, and after entering the site, dozens of colorful little pieces of logos appear. I particularly like that, as you're intrigued by the glimpse of a familiar logo, you certainly want to click on it to see more. The photos are sharp and move so you can see all sides of the object. The site is glamorous, so I would imagine the company to be just as flashy.This isn't an ordinary, ho-hum site, and if you don't believe me, have a look for yourself. You won't be disappointed.
10. Milton Glaser Inc. has a nicely composed site; one of the few I've seen to have a neutral background that isn't white (or grey or black), I find it very easy to look at. Also, an interesting little detail is that when you enter the site your browser window is minimized slightly to become a rectangle. I don't know that I like that, but it's a little thing that gets your attention. The company designs interiors, publications, packaging, products, and logos, and are the guys behind the "I (heart) NY" logo that everyone on the planet has seen. Their site is well organized, and the text size is large and easy to read. Overall, I like the site although it is not usually what grabs me, like urban and contemporary flashy sites. Well planned and executed, the site serves the company well in my opinion.